Diesel crack tops $100 a barrel as spot freight rates ease
The diesel crack cleared $100 a barrel for the first time this year, past even the 2022 post-COVID run, and that number reaches haulers whether they see it on the ticket or not. RBN Energy laid out the run-up this week. When the spread between crude and finished diesel is this wide, refiners keep it, and it lands on carriers through the pump price and the fuel surcharge that rides on top of it.
What the wide crack means for haulers
The crack is the refiner's cut for turning a barrel of crude into diesel. At $100 it says the physical market for refined product is tight, not that crude is expensive. Crude has been soft. Diesel has not, because refining capacity and inventories are thin enough that any hiccup shows up in the product price fast. For a fuel hauler, that means the surcharge stays elevated even on days the crude screen is green.
Freight rates ease
Spot rates slipped even with fuel costs climbing, per FleetOwner, as seasonal freight softness outweighed the higher diesel bill. The surcharge covers the fuel, but the line-haul rate is what pays the truck, and that rate is heading the wrong way into the back half of the year. Thinner freight and a fat fuel line is a bad combination for anyone hauling on the spot market.
Hormuz and crude
WTI was slightly higher this morning after giving back more than $1.50 a barrel overnight. Mansfield reads it as the market weighing better crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz against continued tension and tight fuel inventories. Crude could ease if the strait stays open, but the diesel crack is its own animal and may hold up even if the barrel drops.
Soybean oil drops
Chicago soybean oil fell 7% in a week on uncertainty over US biodiesel policy. That feeds directly into biodiesel and renewable diesel blend economics, and any hauler moving B5 or B20 or buying blended gallons should watch where the policy lands before locking supply.
The private fleet list
FleetOwner published its 2026 top private petroleum fleets, and FleetOwner separately flagged five cost risks quietly draining oil and gas fleet budgets. Worth a read for anyone benchmarking their own cost per mile against the field.
What to watch
Whether the diesel crack holds above $100 or narrows as refiners chase the margin. Whether spot freight firms up or keeps sliding into fall. And where US biodiesel policy settles, which sets the floor under soybean oil and the blended gallon.